‹a›Zelda Warriors 12‹/a›

“A new year. A new start. A new chance to make a change. Long-time readers of this site may know that we at ComicsAlliance are proud cheerleaders for a more representative industry. We like political correctness. We like feminism. We like diversity. We want the industry at large — and the superhero publishers in particular — to embrace these things.

To that end, we have a few suggestions for how superhero publishers might change in 2014. Some of you may look at this list and say it’s too ambitious, or that we’re asking for too much. We say this list is a good start. These are our ten resolutions for the industry.”

“An article at the Daily Beast entitled Fail Fast, Fail Often: How Losing Can Help You Win explains how doing something over and over, even though you make numerous mistakes, is better than sweating over every detail of fewer attempts. The secret is learning from your failures, which you can’t do if you never fail.

The ad Proctor & Gamble produced for the Sochi Olympics illustrates exactly that point. It’s the practice and the failures that get you to the top. Get a hankie, since it may make you go all verklempt inside. You’ll probably see a shorter version of this on TV quite a bit over the next month.”

“Boston may be small but the range of douchebags is surprisingly vast. In a city overrun by college kids and rowdy sports fans, douchiness comes naturally. The term “Masshole” encompasses so much shittiness, so much repellent behavior, that we had to document all of it. And the easiest way is to spotlight the places where these people drink.

Townie douches, rich douches, college douches (and the special subcategory, underage college douches), old douches, and of course the douchey staff members who keep these douchey establishments up and running—let’s take a minute to thank them all.

“January seems to be the worst time of year for realizing how screwed up your life is. Everyone is talking about resolutions. You’re recovering from all the money you spent on the holidays. Taxes are coming up. It’s the month your parole gets repeatedly denied. It’s the month that says, “Here’s a shitload of enormous problems. Oh, yeah, and here’s a grocery list of crap you need to change about yourself, because the rest of the year you are an overindulgent, self-destructive child.”

Big change — the type you have to make in order to pull yourself out of a turd landslide — is different. It’s scary and requires a hundred times more work than just regular living. Digging yourself out of a hole isn’t about survival … it’s about pulling ahead. In doing that, there are some basics that, in my experience, have to happen. Or at the very least, they make the shoveling a whole lot less brutal. For instance …”

“Endings define stories. A great ending can make everything that’s come before seem retroactively great. A weak ending can ruin everything. But why do they have to be so impossible to write? And is there any trick for crafting a strong ending that doesn’t involve endless misery?

“Conventional wisdom says that houses are a lifelong investment. While it might not be true, that’s also a source of some controversy. When compared with other investments, though, houses don’t seem to stack up very well.P

Finance blog jlcollinsnh took an inverted approach to examining whether or not a house should be treated as an investment. Intending to come up with a list of attributes that a bad investment would have, the list got quite long.”

“Nietzsche is famous for saying that God is dead, but news of The Almighty’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated. Here are some of the most fascinating and provocative philosophical arguments for the existence of God.”

“For somebody who drew a rather popular comic extolling the virtues of “Quitting Your Day Job and Doing What You Love,” I’ve come to understand that this idea is fairly problematic. I’m not even necessarily referring to the classist implications like those that are presented in this well written piece on Slate, but the issues that “Doing What You Love” causes for the people who’ve followed that advice, or have at least attempted to convince ourselves we did.”

It’s only been 10 years, but the company that connected the world has had more experiences than most have in a lifetime. It’s been the focus of a major motion film. It’s played a role in multiple political revolutions. And most notably, it connects more people than any other single company ever has.”

“According to psychiatrist Panpimol Wipulakorn of Thailand’s Department of Mental Health, these young people who posted selfies often do not get positive feedback on social media. That, in turn, cause emotional distress that in the long term could stunt their emotional development.”

“Want to convince someone of something? Make up a rhyme. They may think it’s cutesy, but they’ll still believe it more readily than if it were stated plainly. At least until they are asked to think about it a little.”

“Moga drew this, which I found on her Tumblr blog. I first thought, poor kid, wait until she drops that school block and picks up the debt block, plus the blocks for job, marriage, kids, divorce, loss, loneliness, and illness. But along the way, you find out that you are stronger than you ever realized you could be. I did not want to actually say all that (except in my mind) until after I saw the followup panels, which you can see if you continue reading.”

“Jealousy and envy are two of the most common—yet negative and useless—emotions many of us have. For a long time, I let both of these destructive feelings overwhelm and poison me. Here’s how I finally gained control over them.”

“A small memorial to the beloved actor/director/writer/comedian Harold Ramis has been placed at the 8th Hook and Ladder firehouse in TriBeCa. Candles, flowers, and a package of Twinkies were laid out in front of the firehouse to commemorate Ramis’ iconic role as Dr. Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters, which was filmed there.”

“UniverseProjects told us about his Russian wife trying to ask for a tape measure. He knew what she meant. Learning a different language is hard, and it takes years to learn enough words to express everything you need to express. Meanwhile, you do the best you can with the words you have. And we can usually figure out what you mean, but the effort can be amusing.

Everyone has an example, from all different languages. Here are some from the comments at imgur.”

“On the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya, a gnu was attacked by a crocodile and was being dragged back into deeper water when a heroic hippo came to save him. The rare moment was captured by photographer Vadim Onishchenko.”

“When your schedule is as jam-packed as Victoria Beckham‘s, we imagine time management is extremely important. And now the designer has figured out a way to get a workout in on her busiest days — though of course, she isn’t going to change out of her 5-in. heels, even to hit the treadmill.”